Welcome to the site! We're currently under construction, so please check periodically as we get more photos, maps, area descriptions, and literature on old-growth posted. If you have any suggestions or material to contribute, please fill out our contact form or post in our forum. Enjoy!

The Big Poplar of Perry County

"Down in the southern part of Perry County, on Lynn Fork of Leatherwood Creek, is one of the most beautiful tracts of virgin forest I have ever seen. For some time, I had heard of the Big Poplar of Perry County, and it was while on the quest for this that I saw this magnificent forest. It occupies the Left Fork of Lynn Fork, and for some two miles, we walked through untouched forest, following a faint trail which led to the big Poplar, a gigantic tulip tree nearly 24 feet in circumference, breast high. It took five people with arms outstretched to reach around the tree. this gigantic trunk towered upward, unbranched, to such heights that it was impossible to distinguish the leaves of the crown. Nowhere east of California have I seen such a gigantic tree. And this was only one of many large trees. This forest contains a variety of trees - tulip poplar, oaks, beech, sugarm maple, hemlock, all large... The luxuriance of the undergrowth is beyond description. There is a wealth of herbaceous plants, and beautiful wildflowers everywhere. The whole plae is awe-inspiring in its beauty and grandeur... Nowhere in the whole world is there the equal in beauty and magnificence of our eastern deciduous forest. It is unexcelled. And in Kentucky and Tennessee, this deciduous forest reached its superlative development. By saving a piece of Kentucky's virgin forest, you would be saving a forest outstanding of its kind... We must act quickly before it is cut - the timber rights are held by the Leatherwood Lumber Company, who are now cutting in the next branch... By all means, this project is worthy of your greatest effort. Nowhere, not even in the Great Smoky Mountains, have I seen a more beautiful forest or larger trees. Let us work together to save this area."

E. Lucy Braun, March 29, 1935

After this talk, the organization "Save Kentucky's Primeval Forest League" was formed. Two years later Lynn Fork was cut.